Amplifiers
Acoustic Image Coda R Series III
Once you have an electric violin, electric viola, electric cello or electric upright bass (or an acoustic instrument with a pickup), you are only half ready to be heard! The other half of your sound comes from the amplifier. Get a mismatched amp and your great tone suddenly sounds tinny or distorted.
Avoid electric guitar amps - they tend to exaggerate the high strings (so guitar solos sound flashy) and make your electric violin sound shrill. Hit an open E string and drive everybody from the room! We select from many amp brands to find those with great tone, good features, and affordable prices! If you start with an amp that gives you a natural-sounding tone, then you can modify it however you please - mild to wild.
Features to consider:
- Battery power for playing on the street, or in the woods.
- Reverb is a pleasing effect to add warmth to your string tone.
- Effects beyond reverb take you into more wild sounds like flanger, distortion, phasing, etc.
- Two input channels allow you to play with a friend, or run two instruments into the same amp.
- Headphone jack allows you to practice without disturbing your neighbor.
- Direct output sends your signal to the PA system so the sound person can blend you with other band members. This is crucial if you have a solid body instrument, because on many amps when you plug in an output cable, it turns off the speaker for privacy. Now you can't hear yourself well enough to play in tune!
UNDER $120
The Danelectro Honeytone is a belt-mounted amp with tone control and variable overdrive (distortion). Headphones plug in for private practice.
The Kustom 16 offers great tone and value, and surprising volume also!
UNDER $200
Kustom Sienna 30
For the best bang for your buck, the Kustom Sienna 30 is a fantastic value, a 30-watt amp that sounds great with electric violin and viola, with a great feature set at a bargain price! Includes a spring reverb and analog chorus, separate mic input, line out for connecting to a PA, and an active/passive switch -- works especially good with the Yamaha SV-120.
The two channel Crate Taxi 15 package allows you and a friend to sound good, even down to the cello range. It has a permanent rechargeable battery for portable music making. Works on AC power also.
Crate's Taos 30 watt amp has two inputs, and excels even down to the cello range. Now reduced to $230 - $100 off list!
Kustom Sienna 65
UNDER $400
If you need a lot of power, and you're shopping on a budget, the
The Taxi 15 Package may well be the value leader in the amplifier category. Packaging a good basic microphone and a professional-quality custom gig bag with their already-excellent Taxi 15 makes this a bargain that's hard to resist. A perfect first amp, as a battery-powered amp will still be useful long after the player upgrades to something more powerful or expensive.
Roland AC-60
UNDER $500
The amazing Roland AC-60 is a 60-watt, two-channel amp that is wonderfully small and lightweight only 19 pounds. It offers a balanced XLR input for a microphone, and the instrument channel has a selector switch to optimize for either piezo (electric strings) or magnetic pickups. This feature allows it to warm up the tone of even the harshest solid-body electric violins.
It sounds fantastic with violin, viola and cello, and offers chorus, reverb and delay. Plenty of power for most applications.
Fishman Loudbox 100
OVER $500
The new Fishman Loudbox 100 brings much of the same technology that made the original Loudbox (now discontinued) a mainstay of the acoustic amplification world. But the Loudbox 100 delivers it in a 100-watt, portable bi-amped unit that weighs just 23 lbs.! The Loudbox Performer moves in to fill the spot vacated by the discontinued Loudbox, bringing 130 watts to the table in a tri-amped design. This means there is a separate amp for the tweeter, the midrange, and the woofer, providing the utmost clarity in reproducing of what you play. Includes a feedback filter and a mute switch for unplugging a cable without a loud noise.
Acoustic Image Contra R Series III
Acoustic Image amps are small (about 19 pounds), powerful (400 watts), clean sounding, and made here in North Carolina.
Pointing the woofer down for omnidirectional dispersion allows a compact cabinet with the midrange and tweeter firing forward. Although designed for upright bass, they produce remarkable fidelity for all instruments.
They make the Contra, a one-channel model with no effects, as well as a pair of two channel amps with digital reverb, delay, and chorus. The Coda is designed for upright bass, and has a polypropylene driver, for better low bass response. Their new Corus has a paper cone, so it presents as a little louder and more forward-sounding, but the bass roll-off at 60hz is a little higher than the Coda and Contra. Production on their new Series III models is finally starting to catch up to demand. They are small, light, and put out a wonderful tone at 400 watts. Click on our amplifier menu and select Acoustic Image to see the Series III models. Series III Clarus power amps are in stock also! Our prices are the lowest you'll find!
PRICELESS
Our expert advice to help you choose the right amp for your style(s) of playing! We are happy to chat during business hours, just call 919-806-3311. And thanks for reading through our website. If you don't see what you're after, it just may not be up on our site yet, so please call or email.
Bose L1 Model II
Bose L1 Portable Line Array System You can finally buy the amazing Bose L1 system from a small shop run by musicians! The Bose L1 speaker systems are now available from Electric Violin Shop.
Why buy the Bose L1 portable line array system? To enjoy your performing more, be kind to your back, and preserve your hearing as well! They are easy for players to transport and set up, even if you have no experience with PA systems. No sound person required!
Click here for info on the Bose L1 Model I system, the Bose L1 Model II system, the Bose T1 Tone Match Audio Engine and the B1 Bose Bass Module, and to read Blaise's story of hearing the Bose L1 PA system compared to a conventional PA at the Carrboro Music Festival.
Recording your violin, viola, cello, bass, keyboard or guitar, etc. into your home computer is finally within the reach of most people, technically and economically. Click on "Mac & PC Recording" category to see part of our selection - call for our current selection and advice!